The broken glass on the floor confirmed Togami's worst suspicions — Ogami hadn't fallen asleep through carelessness or irresponsibility. Something had happened while he'd been gone. And if one of the two people in the room had been taken out… that meant…

Togami spun away from Ogami's chair, hurling himself towards the bed where Naegi lay. He didn't dare grab the injured boy to try to shake him into consciousness — the most he could do was press one hand to Naegi's good shoulder and the other along the side of his neck. Togami could feel a weak pulse beneath his fingers, but it was hardly reassuring, not when the other boy remained stubbornly, horribly asleep. "Naegi, can you hear me? Naegi!"

And then, at the sound of Togami calling his name, Naegi's eyelids twitched once, twice, until they finally fluttered open. His eyes brightened when he looked up at Togami — but only until Togami half-collapsed against the side of the bed, his joints going weak and watery with relief. "Togami? What —"

"You're all right." Togami couldn't stop the words tumbling past his lips, even though he hadn't meant to say anything aloud. "You're still all right. I thought —" He clamped his lips shut at that, before he could say anything further. There was no point in admitting how badly he'd been shaken by a possibility that hadn't even occurred.

"What are you talking about?" Naegi asked, blinking away the last lingering sleepiness from his expression. "Why wouldn't I be all right? Why did —"

And then he stopped short, eyes going wide as he caught sight of Ogami, slumped over in her chair. "No. Not again."

"She's still breathing," Togami said, before Naegi could assume the worst. "Just unconscious."

Naegi's gaze flickered over Ogami a moment longer until he nodded slowly, still looking worried. "What happened?"

"I don't know. She was like this when I got here," Togami said. He gave Naegi a dubious look. "I don't suppose you remember anything?"

But just as he'd expected, Naegi shook his head. "No. She woke me up a few times to make sure my head was okay and make me drink more, but she seemed fine when I fell asleep again." He bit his lip. "Are you sure she isn't just tired? I mean — she must have been here a while, right?"

"If it were natural sleep, she would have woken by now," Togami pointed out. "Fighting is what she does — she's highly attuned to sensing the movements of others. Anyone with her skills should have noticed the moment I got within reach of her, asleep or not."

"Then — you think someone did this to her?" Naegi asked, horror creeping across his face. "But — why? What would anyone get from knocking Ogami unconscious?"

Togami grimaced. He might not know exactly why someone would want to do this — but he did have a much better understanding of the situation than Naegi did. After all, someone knocking out a single student and leaving her relatively unharmed was a very different scenario from a murderer drugging multiple people and leaving corpses behind. He didn't particularly like the idea of telling Naegi about what he'd found upstairs, not when it would upset the soft-hearted boy so badly when he ought to be recovering — but leaving him ignorant would be far more dangerous.

"I think I might have some idea," he said, and something in his voice made Naegi's eyes go wide with horrified understanding.

He knew, Togami realized. After hearing the same news so many times already, of course Naegi would recognize the beginning of this revelation, no matter how much he hated admitting it. Togami wished that he could say that Naegi had misunderstood, that the situation wasn't what he thought — but all he could do was reach out to take the other boy's pale hand as he went on with the explanation he couldn't avoid.

"It isn't a coincidence that I came down here now. When I was investigating upstairs, I found a dead body."

Even though he'd obviously been expecting it, the words hit Naegi like a blow. Togami's stomach coiled into knots at the open misery written across Naegi's face. He might not have committed the act that had caused Naegi that unhappiness, but his words had still been the impetus. Togami silently vowed to himself that forcing him into this role would be one more thing that the killer would have to answer for, once they worked out what had happened.

It had to be a mark of how much practice they'd all had in this situation that it only took Naegi a few seconds to pull himself together. He squared his shoulders, visibly bracing himself before asking, "Who was it?"

Togami scowled. Of course that would be the first question anyone would ask — the one question he couldn't answer. "I don't know. I couldn't get close enough to tell."

"You mean because it was in a weird place?" Naegi asked slowly. "Or because the body was… damaged?"

If there had been any way to avoid the rest of the explanation, Togami would have jumped on it — but the only other options were worse. Either he omitted key details, making himself look like an incompetent investigator, or he lied outright to the boy who had trusted him without hesitation from the moment their relationship began. Both choices were utterly unacceptable… meaning that the only thing he had left to give was the truth.

"Neither," Togami said, letting his gaze drop down to focus on his hand entwined with Naegi's. He didn't have much experience admitting to failures, and it was easier if he didn't try to meet Naegi's eyes while he spoke. "The body was on the floor in the back of the destroyed fifth floor classroom, facing away from the door — and some kind of chemical was being pumped into the air around it. I didn't notice it at first, and by the time I got close enough to examine the body, I'd already breathed it in."

"You — what?" Naegi's fingers clenched around his hand, and Togami looked up, startled at the almost painfully tight grip. To his shock, Naegi didn't look annoyed or frustrated by the lack of information — he looked terror-stricken, in a way that he hadn't since that first trial. "You left as soon as you noticed it, right? You — you don't look sick. How do you feel? Is anything wrong?"

Naegi's gaze darted all over Togami, like he thought he could see visible effects of whatever Togami might have inhaled. His breath came quicker, with a ragged edge that carried the threat of tears — and Togami got it. Hearing about what had happened upstairs hadn't made Naegi upset to learn that the corpse was unidentified — it had made him afraid for Togami's life. That was the same knife-edged fear that had cut cold and sharp through Togami's heart every time Naegi had put himself in danger, the weakness and dependence that Togami hated being forced to feel. It should have been a relief to learn that at least Naegi shared that same vulnerability, that he felt the same for Togami as Togami did for him.

It wasn't. While in any other circumstances Togami would have been pleased at the confirmation that Naegi returned some part of the depth of his feelings, this was one emotion he didn't want to share. Faced with the choice, he would have preferred to spare Naegi the pain of that soul-crushing fear, even if it meant that he would never have known that Naegi matched him in that feeling.

"Of course I'm fine," Togami said, pitching his voice to sound dismissively confident. He didn't want to lie to Naegi — but there was no reason to go into detail about it, either. "I left as soon as I realized what was happening. It made me a little dizzy and weak, but it mostly cleared up after I left."

Naegi didn't look entirely reassured, but he nodded slowly. "I just… I don't know what I'd do if you didn't come back. If the next time I saw you, you were…"

"I expect it would be fairly similar to what I'd have done if Jill had stabbed more than your arm," Togami said, unable to resist the opportunity to drive home that particular point. "But it won't matter for a while yet. I have no intention of letting you out of my sight for a moment until this killer is caught and neutralized."

"Right. That's what we need to focus on," Naegi said, giving him a determined nod. "We have to figure out what happened."